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Monday, July 23, 2012

PEACH PROSECCO BELLINI SORBET

AN ANNIVERSARY

She slid up to the counter in the dark office and pushed the necessary documents across the chocolate brown wood towards the woman standing stern and tall behind. “I’d like to choose a date to be married!” she exclaimed, giddy with pride and excitement. Despite her still-broken French, she answered all the questions and signed all of the papers. She was ever-so careful selecting the date; she had heard that marrying on a Tuesday or a Thursday was good luck in the Jewish religion so she chose a Thursday to be married. The 23rd… sounded very lucky as well, and she marked it down and confirmed with one sharp nod. And ran home to tell her man.

“What?!” he cried. “A Thursday?! How could you choose a Thursday? My parents haven’t closed the shop one single day in the thirty years since it has been open for anything or anybody! They’ll refuse to come to our wedding!” He was distressed, to say the least, but she wouldn’t budge, calming him with her assurance that it would all turn out well and for the best. And married they were after that very brief courtship, married they were twenty-five years ago on a sunny July morning following several days’ preparation, cooking their own wedding lunch, baking their own wedding cakes and gathering around them a few selected family and friends. And, sure enough, his parents closed up the shop, put on their Sunday best and followed the wedding party to City Hall where they watched their only son marry the woman he loved who loved him back. The Champagne (supplied by these very same joyfully happy parents) flowed, the food was lavish, the laughter exuberant and the two began their life together wrapped in warmth and merriment.

And they lived happily ever after.

They all laughed at Christopher Columbus

When he said the world was round

They all laughed when Edison recorded sound

They all laughed at Wilbur and his brother

When they said that man could fly

They told Marconi
Wireless was a phony

It's the same old cry

They laughed at me wanting you

Said I was reaching for the moon

But oh, you came through

Now they'll have to change their tune

They all said we never could be happy

They laughed at us and how!

But ho, ho, ho!

Who's got the last laugh now?

Ford and his Lizzie

Kept the laughers busy

That's how people are

They laughed at me wanting you

Said it would be, "Hello, Goodbye."

But oh, you came through

Now they're eating humble pie

They all said we'd never get together

Darling, let's take a bow

For ho, ho, ho!

Who's got the last laugh?

Hee, hee, hee!

Let's at the past laugh

Ha, ha, ha!

Who's got the last laugh now?"

- Astaire & Rogers, They All Laughed, George and Ira Gershwin

Twenty-five years we have been married, sticking together through thick and thin, the ups and downs so high and so low like a mad crazy roller coaster ride, the joys and difficulties of parenthood, the pleasures and madness of a culturally mixed marriage. Twenty-five years of date nights and family vacations, of exhausting workaday weeks and long months working side by side, of four countries and three languages and two religions and one love.

L’espoir, l’ardeur sont tout

Ce qu’il te faut

Mes bras, mon cœur, mes

Epaules et mon dos

Je veux te voir des étoiles

Dans les yeux

Je veux nous voir sourire

Et heureux.

- Grégoire, Toi et Moi, Grégoire Boissenot

Hope, strength are all

That you need

My arms, my heart, my

Shoulders and my back

I want to see the stars

In your eyes

I want to see us smile

And happy.

Love at first sight, perfect marriage, soulmates, all the old clichés gather around us and we bat them around like flies. True, not true? Who can pinpoint when it began? Who can put their finger on the exact definition of what one means to the other? Who can define what is perfect and what isn’t? We move through the years gingerly, trying this and that, trial and lots of error, dancing around traditions and assumptions and each other, pushing against walls of rules and expectations. Arguments, compromise, stubborn refusals and making it up as we go along. Laughing at our own foibles and at the other’s quirks and eccentricities, trying to laugh when crying seems to be the easiest thing, hoping when desperation comes more naturally.

Twenty-five years today and we are on the cusp of a brand new life. A new apartment, our boys grown, both of us beginning new projects and new careers, life is an on-going adventure that is exciting and terrifying at once. Whatever brought us together, that spark, that curiosity and intrigue, that je ne sais quoi is still alive and kicking although over the years it has metamorphosed into something more honest and solid. Oh, romance is still there, the flowers and Champagne, the date nights and weekend getaways, yet that old romance is punctuated now by private jokes and easy comfort, making it all that more delicious.

Our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary will be spent buying neither diamonds nor Champagne but tools and renting a sanding machine, our afternoon spent in a notary office signing the papers which will make us the proud owners of a new Love Nest. With Marty slowly healing at home as best he can, our evening will be quiet and relaxing en famille.

I loved the Cherry Prosecco Granità so much that I knew that replacing the cherries with peaches and the sparkling Rosé Prosecco with white Prosecco would make a stunning treat. And it did. More like a sorbet this time than a granità, and using the Cartizze Prosecco gave a gentler hint of wine, making for a fruitier sorbet. Beautiful! And perfect for toasting the twenty-five years of marriage gone and the twenty-five years of marriage to come.

I want to share this with Jeanne and Meeta for this month’s Monthly Mingle. This month’s Mingle theme, chosen by Jeanne, our hostess with the mostess, is a Taste of Yellow for Barbara. You have read my post on the passing of a friend and beloved and generous food blogger, Barbara of Winos & Foodies who recently lost her very long battle against cancer. This Monthly Mingle is for her. We are all cooking and baking in yellow. I already posted a first Yellow entry, Milan-Style Asparagus with runny egg and Parmesan.

Thanks to the wonderful people at Bisol Prosecco and at Nielsen Massey for generously sponsoring From Plate to Page and offering me bottles of gorgeous Prosecco and bottles of exquisite extract (vanilla, lemon and coffee). Keep an eye out on the Plate to Page website and blog to win an amazing goodie bag filled with amazing products!

Peel the peaches (if very juicy, peel the peaches over the bowl of the robot mixer or blender to catch the juice) and remove the pit/stone (discard). Cut the peaches into chunks, place in a robot mixer or blender and mix to purée. Pour the peach purée into a bowl.

Add the Prosecco, the honey and the lemon extract or lemon juice and blend or whisk well. Pour the liquid into a freezer-safe container, a metal pan or a plastic container, preferably with a lid, and place in the freezer. The larger and shallower your pan (8 x 12 x 1 inch/20 x 30 x 2 cm), the quicker the sorbet will be ready to eat.

For a shallow pan, stir the sorbet every 15 minutes or so, using a fork, spatula or metal spoon, until ready to serve. For a deeper container, stir every few hours and then leave in the freezer overnight. Stir it up before serving.

Serve as is for a refreshing, flavorful treat. For a summery, elegant dessert, serve with fresh raspberries and strawberries.

Congratulations Jamie - I hope you have wonderful evening. A drop or three of prosecco will certainly make the evening sweet. I love a bellini and making it into a sorbet is a great idea for hot nights.

Happy 25th anniversary, Jamie! What a milestone to celebrate and what better way to celebrate it than by getting your new life ready, sanding machines or not :) I loved the story of your wedding so much, and I love this bellini peach abd persecco sorbet, so lovely, fresh and refreshing - sort of like your marriage, maybe? xoxoxo

Absolutely love this line: "private jokes and easy comfort". :-) I love that feeling. I share it with my man as well and it makes me happy every day, gives me strength to weather that roller coaster you wrote of. :-) Happy Anniversary, Jamie! Wishing you much, much happiness in your new love nest. :-)

"And they lived happily ever after'....LOVED that line. Happily ever after has so many hues, shades, and sides to it. In a marriage full of love, ups are victories and downs are adventures. A marriage full of love is perfect, the happily ever after.

Congratulations on 25th, and wish you have many many many more to come.

Lovely regard for your love story. Thank you for sharing. Also....thank you for sharing a refreshing summertime delight. Happy Many More Years ahead and enjoy this new chapter. Its awfully exciting to begin anew.AmyRuth

Happy (belated) Anniversary, Jamie! I feel quite chagrined showing up several days late to the party, but I really enjoyed this post. I love the pictures and the way you told the story of selecting the date - and how you so beautifully captured the complexities and harmony over the last 25 years. Congratulations and may there be MANY more years of celebration!

My dearest Saucy you and JP are like a cute young couple forever happy and forever in love. Wishing you another 25 years together. Hugs to you both. Also wishing you all the very best with your new phase in life. Now this sorbet is so delightful and something I seriously need now. Thanks for joining the special mingle!

Here's to many more beautiful years, you sound like you are a very lucky woman:-) I love the treat you celebrated with! In Tucson, AZ at my favorite restaurant, there is a Bellini drink that will knock you on your feet....literally LOL! It is full of alcohol, BUT soooooo delicious....once I ordered two, but don't tell anyone:-) I truly hope you had a beautiful day, Hugs, Terra

Congratulations on this milestone. It is so hard to find people who have been married as long as Jonathan and I. We should forma club.:) Yet again many of our friends are still so young so we need to give thema chance! :) Love this peach sorbet a perfect way to celebrate no need of diamonds at all.:)

A sparkling sorbet to celebrate new beginnings and 25 years together! Congratulations, Jamie! My husband and I will be celebrating 23 years later this month in our new home with sanding machines, too :)

A sparkling sorbet to celebrate new beginnings and 25 years together! Congratulations, Jamie! My husband and I will be celebrating 23 years later this month in our new home with sanding machines, too :)

Twenty-five years - that's s serious achievement in this day and age :o) Congrats to you both and may there be many many more (and when is this ABBA-themed vow renewal anyway?!). The sorbet sounds like my kind of dessert - sweet & alcoholic (hic!). Thanks for joining this special Mingle not once but twice!